NEV celebrates Paul Fournaise’s epic LEJOG ride with a surprise ride!
Back in June Paul rode Lands End to John O’ Groats in memory of his son Sam. His epic ride took 14 days and he fundraised for Essex and Herts Air Ambulance.
Today, 11 NEV members set off from the Booking Hall cafe on what Paul thought was a David Smith Smiley social ride to Blackmore Tearooms. The other 10 riders knew different as they had been deviously and meticulously planning a surprise.
The ride was the normal chatty social affair, until about 24 miles into the ride where we pulled over for a ‘comfort’ stop. It was actually so we could get Paul in to a more appropriate jersey! Tony whipped out Pauls Essex and Herts Air Ambulance jersey and announced that riding Lands End to John O’ Groats was not enough and that we needed him to do an extra loop and could he lead us to North Weald airfield. A confused Paul happily changed attire and led us the last three miles to the airfield.
On the last home stretch down to the air ambulance building, Paul was once again thrust out front, where the NEV riders rode in perfect formation behind him, heartedly singing the Dambusters.
The pilots, critical care staff, doctors and fundraising team were all outside waiting for us, alongside Pauls wife Jill, son Eric and granddaughter Molly.
The surprise had worked! An emotional Paul gave a speech and thanked everyone, before we were taken round to the helicopter for a photo shoot. The staff were only too happy to tell us all about the helicopter, how it operates and how it’s funded.
Then in true NEV style we cycled round to the Rosylea Tearooms for some much deserved sustenance, where Paul’s family joined us too!
The group of cyclists (Paul back in his NEV kit) then rode back to Rayne, straight to the pub for some much deserved re-hydration, where we debriefed on a job well done and marvelled at how good we were at pulling off the surprise. (We doubt that Paul is going to trust us anymore!)
Thanks must go to Tony for being at his utmost best in subterfuge in organising it. Linzi for organising the Air Ambulance side of things, Graham for the route, David for using the Smiley ride front as a ruse, Nick for getting chats set up and getting Paul out of the way, so Tony could chat to Jill! And of course Jill for giving Paul a pass to ride today!
It was an absolute pleasure to ride out today.
Pauls Just Giving page is still live and if you want to donate here’s the link
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